Human
'Tyrants Issue 26. "Occupied Territory. Part 3- Fatal Mistake." ' 'Front cover- '''the comic shows Wrench, his back to the reader, overcoat flapping in the wind, as he holds onto his hat, and looks over the city. In the background of the cover, the reader can see the sky filled with lasers, robots, dinosaurs, flying military vehicles, and so on. Many fires and plumes of smoke rises from the city. OCCUPIED TERRITORY- WRENCH'S ORIGIN appears along the bottom of the cover. The cover has a very Blade Runner-esque, painted look about it. Narration- "Titan City, the mid to late 90s." The comic shows Wrench, several years younger than he is during current events, looking younger, somewhere in his twenties, and slimmmer. He is dressed more or less in the same clothes, but his jacket and hat are grey, rather than the black colour of the nanites that currently inhabit his clothing. He is walking through the corridor of a police station, drinking a cup of coffee out of a styrofoam cup. He idly raises his hand in greeting as a couple of young police officers say "Hi, detective." He makes his way into his office, as he sits down to do some paperwork. THOOOOOOOOOOM. The entire building blurs, to show it shaking. The coffee cup spills, over his lap. Wrench leaps up. "AH! God damn..." He grabs a tea towel, and holds it down over the affected area. "...Was that an earthquake...?" He goes to his window, his fingers pushing apart the blinds. The reader sees his face, as annoyance crosses it. "No, of course not. Hell." The comic shows a double paged spread, as it shows what Wrench sees outside his window. In front of the police station is a large car park, now filled with rubble, and people running screaming, large pieces of rubbles on top of some of the cars. Across the road is a massive skyscraper; near the top of it, there is now a huge hole, about forty foot in diameter, gushing dust and smoke, and more rubble is falling from it. In the background, there are chunks missing from the tops of other buildings, and one is mid-way in complete collapse. And in the far distance of the pages, a flying object, in the shape of a winged man, is visible. IN the next panel, Wrench is shown from above, running outside the police station. "Team Titan." He looks to see a fellow officer pulling an injured, unconsious, female officer from a police car with a piece of rubble having punched through the windscreen. Blood rushes from her head. On the next page, the flying man hits another building with a large BOOOOOOOOOM. There is nothing visible of the building in the next panel, but a large dust cloud. In the following panel, the winged man flies out of the dust cloud. The human shaped silhouette with wings that in shadow look like massive bat-wings, passes over him, back where he was flung. "''Team Titan ''did this?" Wrench is furious. The next panel shows Wrench on television, stood in the ruined car park, talking to a reporter, whilst ambulance and fire crews help the injured police in the background. "I don't care what the hell that dragon-winged idiot was ''fighting?" ''He looks behind him. "Look what his actions did. Its not what he did, thats at question, but how he did it." "But eye witnesses say that Captain Cymru was struck, he was being hurled backwards. He didn't fly into the buildings on purpose." "Does it ''matter?" ''Wrench raises up his hands wildly. "They shouldn't even have been fighting that monster in the first place." He lifts up his badge. "''I'm ''the police, not some costumed freak." "Are you saying that the police should deal with giant monsters?" "Okay, I speak as a lowly human in a city of 90% superhumans, if the figures are right. I'd say, our police, or at least our army, should be ''exactly ''able to deal with this kind of thing. If they want to fight the bad guys... then they should ''join us!" The comic then cuts to show Wrench on a chat show with a very old, spectacled presenter. "So, what exactly are you saying, detective?" "I am saying that these so called heroes can't be regulated. They were costumes and masks to disguise their identities, but thats the least of our problems. Who are these people deciding to protect us? Because we have people the government pays to protect us already. People like myself, the army, even MI6. If they want to protect us, why not join of those fine organisations? Why don't they join... I'll tell you why, because people like the so called Captain Cyrmru are ''nutcase ''vigilantes that no man or woman in their right mind would every employ!" "But Captain Cyrmru has been responsible for saving many lives..." "Until he lost it. Do you know, that guy openly declares himself to be King Arthur reborn. He is mad, probably schizophrenic, and any police or army psch evaluation would tell us that. But no, he and his brightly costumed friends got round that." "What you suggest? Take their costumes away and have them enlist?" Wrench stands up. "No, I say we take their god-damned powers away, because ''hell ''if they deserve them!" The comic cuts to show him sat behind a desk, with a black, bearded, overweight man in a white shirt sat on the other side. "You can't just go on television and say things like that. You ''know ''how many people got powers around here, and hell if all some of them can do is use telekinesis to tie their own shoelaces... you'll have a lynch mob coming here at the department." "Then don't let me cause you any trouble." Wrench places his detective's badge on the table. In the next panel, Wrench is shown taking a duffel back out of his locker, and looking up and down an empty corridor. He then goes over to a door which says EVIDENCE, and unlocks it. There is a room with shelves with various boxes containing evidence. At the end of the room is a high security metal door with a sign SUPERCRIMINAL EVIDENCE. It has no key, and a keypad and retinal scanner. In the next panel, the door opens. Wrench enters. He opens a box and takes out a ray gun. "This stuff is going to waste in here. And whats a hunted, pariah of a powerless human like me going to do to defend himself?" He grins. The comics cuts to Wrench walking up to an abandoned factory, opening up the padlocked gate. There is rusted metal lettering above the gate that says PINKLEY ENTERPRISES. "Time to make use of my inheritance." He walks down the long path, hands in pockets. The comic then cuts to show him back on the same chat show as before. The presenter continues a sentence "... so considering your well publicised disdain for unrecognised, vigilante superhumans, what are your thoughts on the Nullification? I mean, the superheroes are still out there, despite a few losses, whilst the powered police force and army have been devastated by what Stevens did..." "Your right. Its tragic. But not because of whats happened to our emergency response units and our armed forces. The rest of the world copes without powers, why can't we?" "But Mr..." Wrench jabs a finger onto the table between them. "It is time for us to be human again." "But what about the super heroes? With them still there, doesn't that leave regulated powered people at a minimum? Aren't things even worse, from your perspective, than before?" "You're right. I know everyone hates Graham Stevens right now.... but he feared the capes, just like me. Thats why he did this. Was it the right way? No. But somebody needs to stop the heroes before they get out control. In that, he was right." Narration- "Titan City. Now." Wrench flies down in power-armoured form onto a rooftop. The armour disgorges back into his nanite-laced clothing, leaving him in his normal clothing, walking across the roof, hands in pockets. He looks back at the city. "I'm sorry, Kaan'Qsst, I know you want your army... but human has been fighting wars for its entire history. We don't need powers to do it." He closes his eyes. "Attention Team Titan, my name is Wrench. You might have heard of me, but frankly, I don't really care." As he speaks, what he says is echoed from speech bubbles across the city. ""I have control of the nanite network from Blitzkrieg, so whatever you did... thanks. For reference, I am not a Nazi. Yes, I allied with one... waiting for this moment. The chance to bring everything back to us. The humans. Graham Stevens had the right idea, he just went about it wrong." The comic cuts to Kaan'Qsst, looking up at the sky. "No..." he says. In the sky, the loud speech bubble of the entire city's nanite controlled say "Thanks for listening." End of issue.